First Settlement, buildings, steamboat

Under the Treaty of 1837, made between Wisconsin Territorial Governor Henry Dodge and the Chippewa nation, a large area of Chippewa territory, including the St. Croix and its headwaters to a line 30 miles south of Duluth, was ceded to the United States, while the tribes received specified payments of goods and money and retained rights to hunt, fish, and gather on the ceded lands. By the Proclamation of June 15, 1838, the area was officially opened for settlement. Soon afterward, Benjamin Baker and Jesse Taylor arrived by canoe from Fort Snelling to claim land on the west side of the river, calling it Taylor's Place. The upper end of the rapids was named Falls of St. Croix on the original 1847 government Land Survey Map, while St. Croix Village was mapped on the east side and only a single building labeled Warehouse appeared west of the river, though it was actually the Baker-Taylor double log cabin. Although no falls existed on the river, the rapids made the Taylor site important as the farthest upstream point steamboats could navigate. Until a railroad opened in 1880, riverboats were the main carriers of goods and passengers supporting the town's economy. In 1851, when the first plat for the new settlement was drawn, the name Taylors Falls was chosen in honor of Jesse W. Taylor.

Taylors Falls, Minnesota · United States